Studies on the determination of inorganic iodine in seawater

Existing methods for the determination of the various forms of iodine present in seawater are laborious or unwieldy in use. This paper describes modified forms of the iodate and total iodine methods described by Barkley and Thompson (1960), a spectrophotometric procedure for iodate determination derived from Johannesson's (1958) work, and an automatic method for total iodine determination. Procedures for iodate and total-iodine determination which are suitable for use aboard ship, are recommended. Both procedures for iodate determination returned a standard deviation close to 0.5 μg/l when several replicate samples of a seawater containing approximately 30 μg/l of iodate-iodine were analysed. The automatic method for total iodine determination yielded a standard deviation of 0.8 μg/l by the repeated analysis of a seawater containing a total of approximately 50 μg/l of iodine. Suitable methods for the filtration and storage of seawater are also described.     

Gravity anomalies over inactive fracture zones in the central North Atlantic

The basement topography and the free-air gravity along two profiles in the central North Atlantic between 16° and 25° N, crossing a number of fracture zones, were divided in three wavelength intervals. Two-dimensional modelling shows that the short wavelength (>50 km) gravity is well explained by uncompensated topography (mainly spreading topography). For the long wavelengths (>200 km) there is no correlation of topography and gravity. In principle this topography is compensated. Residual anomalies comprise the Ridge effect as well as regional anomalies related to depth anomalies. The 50 to 200km band-pass filtered topography and gravity contain relevant information on fracture zones. Models require a base of the crust that parallels the topography rather than a form of regional compensation. For an explanation of this crustal model that has the appearance of frozen in normal faults we have to consider the typical morphology as created in the transform domain. The geophysical processes that cause this morphology are still an object of study.     

A locking-compass for in situ sample orientation

A mechanically-actuated locking-compass was designed for mounting on corers to record equipment orientation during the sampling process, thereby providing magnetic orientation data on the recovered deep-sea core. Locking occurs upon impact by the corer with the sea-floor; after retrieval, the device is easily unlocked and reset for another station. Compass construction makes use of commercially available parts, requires no welding and little machining, and thus allows inexpensive and easy assembly at sea.     

Ocean bottom refraction seismograph (OBRS)

This paper describes a pop-up ocean bottom seismograph designed primarily for refraction surveys both on the continental shelf and in deep sea. Its development is the extension of our system based on seismic detectors located on the sea floor with radio transmission of seismic signals and used for seismic refraction studies on the continental shelf. The seismic detectors (vertical geophone or hydrophone and two orthogonally mounted horizontal geophones) are located outside of the pressure vessel on the main frame. Optionally, the seismic sensors may be decoupled from the main frame assembly. This decoupling is performed by a mobile arm positioning the separate three component sensor package on the sea floor.Contribution No. 455 of the Département Scientifique, Centre Océanologique de Bretagne.     

Uptake of plutonium from seawater and sediment by a marine polychaete worm

The results of the uptake of plutonium 239 from sediment by a marine polychaete wormNereis diversicolor is reported in the present paper. A comparison is made of the relative importance of two possible uptake pathways, sediment and seawater by which this worm may obtain its plutonium body-burden. Under the laboratory conditions used for the comparison of those two routes it would appear thatNereis obtains greater than 98% of its body activity from seawater.     

Improved in situ gamma-ray transmission densitometer for marine sediments

The first-generation University of Illinois gamma-ray transmission densitometer, designed for the in situ measurement of sediment bulk density, was modified by incorporating in the detector probe (1) an Americium-241 alpha particle pulser and an anti-walk gain stabilization control to maintain better temperature stability and (2) a small power supply and a IC preamplifier to eliminate the need for a high-voltage coaxial cable between the detector and external signal conditioning electronics package. This second-generation Lehigh University system has been successfully deployed since 1971 in routine use from ships and submersibles in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and the Gulf of Mexico. Results are presented of system operations to (1) measure bulk density over the range of 1.2–1.8 Mg/m³ in the Hudson Canyon, (2) penetrate 1.9 m into the seafloor in the San Diego trough and, (3) be lowered to a water depth of 3.6 km in the Gulf of Mexico.     

Paleomagnetic events in the brunhes and Matuyama epochs identified from magnetic profiles reduced to the pole

Eleven oceanic magnetic profiles associated with the paleomagnetic time scale younger than the beginning of the Matuyama epoch (2.43 my) have been reduced to the pole, altered to conform to a 3 cm yr^-1 spreading rate, and then all halves added and averaged to obtain a representative symmetric magnetic profile. This final stacked profile emphasizes the subtle anomalies associated with minor paleomagnetic events and minimizes randomly occurring anomalies. The axial anomaly of the stacked profile shows no evidence of the Laschamp event (centered at 0.025 my); however, a minimum at 0.15 my may correspond to the Blake event. A physical model of the stacked magnetic profile consists of a thin, highly magnetized layer with a 40% magnetization decrease at 10 km from the profile center. Magnetization values were modified from Irving and Talwani and the Blake event included. The stacked profile shows two minor anomalies centered at 1.97 my and 2.17 my. The younger anomaly corresponds with the younger Olduvai event (centered at 1.965 my) on the Cox time scale and the W anomaly (centered at 1.99 my) of Emilia and Heinrichs. The older anomaly lies between the older Olduvai event (2.12 my) of Cox and the X anomaly of Heirtzler, and Emilia and Heinrichs; additional work is required to assess the significance of this older event.This material was presented at the Fall Annual Meeting of the American Geophysical Union, December 8, 1971.     

Relationship between Shot-Induced Noise and Shot Interval in Seismic Refraction Experiments at Sea

Seismic noise induced by the seismic source during continuous profiling reduces the signal-to-noise ratio and hence the data quality. This noise is largely dependent on the shot interval. In this paper, the noise amplitude of refraction seismic records from a special experiment is analysed as a function of the shot interval. An empirical exponential relationship between mean peak noise amplitude and shot interval is deduced. By increasing the shot interval, the induced noise can be minimized on all successive records. This results in an improvement of the data, predominantly the signal-to-noise ratio. Because the seismic signal and the shot-induced noise have nearly the same spectra, the chance of improving the signal-to-noise ratio by stacking is significantly reduced.     

Dereverberation of marine reflection seismic data by a spatial combination of predictive deconvolution and velocity filtering

Contamination of seismic reflection records at early times by first-order water reverberations can be especially severe during survey operations over hard and flat sea floors on the continental shelf or in lake environments. A new dereverberation scheme based on two classical techniques — predictive deconvolution and velocity filtering — has been developed to address this problem. The techniques are combined spatially to take advantage of their complementary offset- and time-dependent properties. Stage I of the scheme consists of applying predictive deconvolution at short offset. The data are previously conditioned by a normal moveout correction with the water velocity which restores the periodicity of the reverberations in the offset-time plane and enhances the performance of deconvolution. Stage II of the scheme involves velocity filtering in the common-midpoint domain which is particularly effective at long offset where the moveout difference between primary reflections and reverberations is largest. The dereverberation scheme is well suited for the initial processing of large volumes of data due to the general availability of cost-effective deconvolution and velocity filtering algorithms in seismic processing software packages. Practical implementation issues are illustrated by a field example from the GLIMPCE survey in Lake Superior.Lithoprobe Publication No. 475.